Chapter Text
Unsurprisingly, Gryffindor won the match. Albus was glad he had prefects duties to avoid the inevitable party that broke out in the common room.
Albus wandered the hallways following his usual route, nose buried in his book. He rarely had to tell anybody off for being out after curfew. If students were out and about, they were either so good at hiding he didn’t notice them, or they ran straight back to their common room when they saw him.
Albus had developed a reputation for being intimidating, especially to the younger years. He hadn’t done it intentionally, but he had no plans to dispel the rumors either.
He thought that it was because he didn’t really have any friends. The boys he shared a room with were nice enough. Two of them were inseparable and lived in an impenetrable bubble composed of just themselves. The third guy was dating his cousin Rose, but even before that, he spent all his time with the girls. At first, Albus had tried hanging out with them, but Rose had become mean when she thought he was stealing her friends. Afterward, it became clear that the other girls were pretending to like him to get closer to his brother or worse, his father. Albus had been quick to distance himself from them after that.
He had numerous family members who checked in on him even if he spent most of his time alone. Although he liked the piece and quiet, he was still incredibly lonely. So he found himself lost in books, finding friendship in fictional characters and historical figures.
He’d borrowed a poetry book by Nils Sjoberg from the library, feeling inspired by the book Ivy had been reading. Nils Sjoberg was a contemporary of Padrig Broadus but had written a lot more of much better quality. The more Albus read, the more convinced he was that Sjoberg was his favorite poet.
He was currently reading “Invisible String”, a poem about how two lovers' lives were so intertwined that they must be tied together with an invisible thread of gold.
“Hey, wait up!” A voice called making him jump and drop his book.
He hurried to pick it up and turn around, only to find himself face to face with Scorpius Malfoy.
“You know most people hide when they’re out past curfew, they don’t jump out at prefects,” Albus huffed. He was a bit embarrassed that he’d been so startled.
“I’m sorry. I just wanted to speak to you.” Albus didn’t know where he stood with Scorpius. All he knew about the blond boy was that he was in his year, an excellent quidditch player, and the son of his father's sworn enemy.
“What is it?” Curiosity really was getting the better of Albus today.
Scorpius hesitated before speaking. “You should stop flirting with Ivy. She’s not interested.”
“Excuse me?” Albus was now very confused. He hadn’t been flirting with Ivy. He barely said two things to her, and that was only because he was trying to be nice returning her book to her.
“Stealing a girl's stuff to get their attention is a bit weird,” Scorpius said, seemingly gaining some more confidence. “And immature.”
“I didn’t steal her stuff. She forgot her book in transfiguration. And before you accuse me of stalking her, I was in the library doing the potions essay, I didn’t even know she was going to be there.” That last part wasn’t true, but Scorpius didn’t know that.
“Well, okay then.” He’d stepped closer to Scorpius during his rant. They were now practical touching. Scorpius was taller and looked much stronger than Albus, probably thanks to all the Quidditch training he did. However, he suddenly realized that Scorpius looked intimidated by him. That realization shouldn’t please him as much as it did.
“Besides, I’m like super gay,” he said just to try to diffuse the tension.
“Oh, cool.” Scorpius’ cheeks had turned pink.
Before Albus could say anything else, Scorpius spun around and marched away.
Albus shrugged before opening his book back up and resumed his patrol. As he walked, Albus couldn’t help but think it was one of the oddest conversations he ever had.
Albus wasn’t sure why he became obsessed with what the Slytherins were doing, but he was. He spent the next few days incessantly checking their location on the map. Unfortunately, his brother soon remembered that he had it and demanded it back. They hadn’t done anything unusual except disappear into their secret room now and again.
It was harder to keep track of them without the map. It wasn’t a problem during classes, but they always managed to give him the slip as soon as the bell rang. Besides, after a few days, the group had caught on to Albus’ new focus on them. Austin, in particular, had started raising one of his perfectly shaped eyebrows at Albus whenever he noticed him looking in their direction.
An annoying voice in the back of his brain whispered that he cared so much because, deep down, he knew that Slytherin was where he belonged.
Albus did not like being in Gryffindor. When the time had come for the sorting hat to sit on his head, he’d panicked and begged to be in the same house as everybody else in his family. The hat had told him that he would regret being in Gryffindor, but if that was what he truly wanted then so be it. By the end of his first year, it was glaringly obvious to not only him but everybody else that he was in the wrong house.
His brother, James, had been the main reason for his house choice. At eleven years old, Albus worshiped the ground he walked on. James, on the other hand, teased him constantly, especially about the possibility of him being a Slytherin. So Albus had wanted to be Gryffindore no matter what the hat said. That decision ended up backfiring spectacularly. James hadn’t acknowledged his existence during his first couple of years at Hogwarts, and even now, they only spoke when James wanted them to.
So now he sat by himself at his usual table in the library, wondering if he’d ruined his entire life with a mistake he made at eleven years old.
Ivy Saint Claire walked into the library. Instead of making her way to the secret passage like Albus expected, she marched over to him.
“Potter,” she said.
“Hi, can I help you with something?” Albus asked cautiously.
“I’m sorry for Scorpius’ behavior the other day. He’s a bit protective of me, but there was no need for him to speak to you that way.” Ivy's tie was undone.
“That’s Okay. No need to apologize," Albus said. "It’s nice that he looks out for you.”
“Yes, it is,” she agreed, finally sitting down. “So, what are doing?”
“Erh, herbology homework,” Albus answered hesitantly.
“Good, I need to do mine too.” She then took out her herbology textbook and a scroll of parchment and got to work.
She stayed there for an hour.
“This was fun,” Ivy said as she put her book away. “We should do this again sometime.”
“Sure,” he tried to say, but she’d already left.
It was a couple of weeks after the odd conversation with Ivy, Albus was sitting on his bed avoiding the disappointed crowd in the common room. Gryffindor had just lost against Slytherin, their greatest enemies.
His main issue with being in Gryffindor is the noise. It is by far the noisiest, most boisterous place in the entire castle. He had always preferred the quiet and calm, but that was simply not possible in Gryffindor Tower. He’d been relieved when he was made prefect that year, it meant that he no longer had to worry about being caught wandering the corridors late at night.
Rose suddenly burst in. Her long curly red hair was pulled up in a bun, and she was wearing an indecently short red dress. Rose Weasley was a perfect mix of her parents, Ron and Hermione.
“You okay?” He asked his cousin.
“I’m good. You might want to leave though,” she said, plopping herself on Damien, her longtime boyfriend's bed.
“Fuck off, this is my room too.”
They used to be very close as children as they were the same age but had drifted apart since they’d started school. At first, it was that Rose wanted to have her own friends who weren’t a part of her family. Then Albus started getting better results than her in a few subjects and things turned competitive between the two. Albus wasn’t going to lie and pretend he didn’t like that he was better academically than his cousin.
The final straw was when Albus had gotten a prefect badge, and she hadn’t. Ever since then, Rose had been downright hostile towards him. It didn’t matter how many times he pointed out that because there was one male and one female prefect she should be mad at Cassie, not him for taking the badge away from her.
“Well, Dami’s going to be here any minute, and I plan to cheer him up whether you're here or not,” Rose said, the insinuation clear on her lips.
“Merlin, use a broom cupboard like everyone else.” Albus sighed
“No,” she said.
Albus flipped her off. He got up in a huff and headed down to the common room.
He’d only taken a few steps into the room when Eli Quin grabbed his arm and shoved him into a corner.
“What the hell, Eli?” He asked exasperated.
“Why the fuck did you tell James that we hooked up?” He demanded louder than he should have if he wanted this to be a private conversation.
“Because he asked, and we did hook up,” Albus answered, confused. People were now definitely noticing that something was up. Eli pressed him further into the wall.
“Yeah well, we lost the match because of what you said. He won’t speak to me let alone pass me the quaffel!” The grip on Albus’ arm tightened as Eli spoke.
“Eli, let go. You’re hurting me,” Albus said, trying to push Eli off him. They were gaining more and more attention.
“No, fuck yo…” Eli was suddenly ripped away from him mid-sentence. James pulled Eli around to face and then punched him in the face.
“He said to get off, you twat.” James said before punching him again, this time knocking him to the ground. “You good, Alli?
“Never better” Albus lied. “You?”
“I think my hand is broken,” James moaned clutching said hand to his chest.
Albus stepped over Eli’s unconscious body and wrapped an arm around his brother. He could smell the stench of alcohol on his breath.
“Let's get you to the hospital wing then.”
The thing with James was that even when they weren’t on speaking terms, he was always the first to jump to Albus’ defense. The problem was that that left no one to defend him from James.
“Thanks,” Albus said as they approached the Hospital wing.
“Don’t mention it.”
Albus left James in the capable hands of Madam Pomfrey. Not wanting to return to the common room, he headed for the prefect's bathroom instead. It was thankfully empty. He undressed and got into the main pool of water. It was the perfect temperature. He turned a tap on until the bath was fully covered in lemon-scented bubbles.
Having access to the baths was Albus' favorite part of being a prefect.
The door snapped open, revealing Scorpius Malfoy.
“Oh sorry.” He said, staggering in. “I didn’t think anyone would be here.”
The prefect’s bathroom had a similar enchantment as the girl's dorm rooms. I wouldn’t let a girl in if a boy was already there and vice versa. However, it would let multiple students of the same sex in at once. There was a rumor that it was because the prefects used to use it for their monthly meetings.
“That's okay. I was just about to go.” Albus himself out of the pool hurriedly wrapped a towel around his waist. He’d actually been planning to stay there for at least another half hour, but Scorpius looked like he needed it more. He was still in his Quidditch uniform, plastered with mud. He’d obviously gone straight to the victory party without showering after the match.
“Cool but you don’t have to leave if you don’t want to. This place is big enough for two of us.” Scorpius leaned back against the door.
“Nah, I’m good. Albus stepped into the little cubby to put his clothes on. When he stepped out, Scorpius hadn’t moved from the door.
“Ivy said that passed her test,” Scorpius said.
“I wasn't aware that I had been tested.”
“Well, either way, you passed.”
Albus was still waiting for him to stop blocking the door so he could leave.
“How did you get in here anyway? You're not a prefect.”
“I bribed Morgan to give me the password.” There was a moment of silence. “Aren’t you going to congratulate me?” The annoying smirk had once again found its way onto Scorpius’s face.
“What for? I heard you only won thanks to your seaker.” He teased.
“Funny. That’s not how I remember it, and seen as was there and you weren’t, I do believe that makes me a more reliable source.” Scorpius leaned forward and Albus suddenly realized how close their faces were.
“Congratulations then.”
“Thanks.” Scorpius’ hair fell over his dark grey eyes.
“Why aren’t y…” Albus’ question was suddenly cut off by a pair of lips pressed into his. He did the only logical thing and kissed Scorpius Malfoy back.